


Return Home

by handelgamer



Series: Steeled Walls and Unending Faith - Tales from the Dragonsong War [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Family Secrets, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 18:44:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18452414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handelgamer/pseuds/handelgamer
Summary: The truth must needs be told and the shroud of secrecy on Aubinaux's family dispelled.





	Return Home

He faced Primals on numerous occasions. He watched the Red Moon fall and had seen the Coils and the truth therein. But facing his parents was somehow worse than all of those.

 

Hara and Mariko’s words of reassurances kept running in his mind. “Don’t worry,” they said. “They’ll just be happy that you’re alive!” “They’ll welcome you with open arms!” And, well, they would be right about that. But his father was a deserter from Ishgard. Ran away with a woman he fell in love with out in the countryside of Coerthas. Who, little did he know, was a true heretic! A truth he so uncomfortably fell upon, thanks to that damned Echo.

 

Aubinaux felt the crushing weight of all of his steps as he headed towards home. Evening had fallen and it was a foggy night. It wasn’t far from home...home? Ha, he thought, ignoring the trembling in his arms. He sure did mess that up.

 

Well, here it was. Here was his parents doorstop. And his arms couldn’t stop trembling. What was stopping him from running away again? Hara and his utterly depressed face. Mariko’s soft sigh of sadness. He’d disappointed those two long enough.

 

Knock knock.

 

He heard the muffled shuffling behind the door. And the muttering of a feminine voice going “It’s dinner time. Who could-”

 

He was still floored by how old she seemed. Her hair was significantly grayer, nearly on all white now. And, she looked so tired. Was that all his fault?

 

“Aubinaux!” Lucinne shouted, hugging her son close. In that moment, he just focused his vision onto the light pouring in from the home, trying to make out as many details of the wall, hallway, pictures, as he could. “Oh! How I missed you! Come in, come in, we’ve just set dinner.” And she began to drag him into the kitchen, Aubinaux doing his best to focus on the sights of home and the smell of- chowder. Of course.

 

And Father was here. Hells.

 

“Welcome home, son. Gods, its been a bit more than five years now. Come, come,” Nolanel said, gesturing to the chair. He...seemed happy to see his son. Gods, he was taken aback with how old he was.

 

And so he took his old seat at the table, right to the sides of his parents. Lucinne began rushing around for a third bowl. “My gods, it’s been more than five years since you had dinner like this. Come, come, you must tell us all about your adventurers,” she said over her shoulder.

 

Well, how was he to fucking say it. Just lay it all out?

 

...well, might as well.

 

“Turns out that Ishgard was the instigator behind the Dragonsong War.”

 

Nolanel’s hand froze in place as he was bringing his spoon to his face. Lucinne nearly dropped the bowl she was carrying to the table.

 

“Oh yes. Two of my compatriots and their politician kid teamed up with the current Knight Dragoon and the leader of the Heretics and the summoner of Shiva to try to diplomatically talk the dragons out of attacking Ishgard. Didn’t work because the ‘good guy’ of the dragons just laid it all out; that the founding fathers, those knights and the king, killed Ratatoskr and partook of her power and enraged Nidhogg into eternal retribution,” he said. “While we found that out, turned out that the current Archbishop was intending to summon a Primal using the Ishgardian faith in order to end the war permanently. So now the Archbishop is dead and the truth is known to Ishgard.”

 

Lucinne near fell into her chair, staring at Aubinaux. Nolanel, meanwhile, just stared into his soup, his hands clasped together and pressed against his mouth in contemplation. Aubinaux just darted his eyes between the two. “Figured you two would rather hear this from me first.”

 

“Why would you care to tell us this though?” Nolanel asked.

 

Time to be truly honest. “Soon after I returned from being lost in time, I sought you and mother again. I only found Mother home. Not long after saying how grateful she was to see her son, fearing my death, I saw an Echo vision.”

 

Lucinne cut in there. “Do you remember the day we met? How you slew a dragon not far from my home?”

 

Nolanel sighed. “Yes, it was an Aevis. What people who consume dragon’s blood turn into.”

 

Lucinne looked at him in shock. “You- you knew all along!? How?!”

 

“I was a Knight Dragoon, not a fool,” Nolanel said. “Though...a fool who idiotically fell too hard for a heretic woman he was going to entrap.”

 

Lucinne shifted away at that. “Well, at least we are mutually fools in that regard.”

 

Neither of them could look at the other now, both of them had their heads turned away. Aubinaux just sipped his chowder. He could only think of how often, when he grew up, there were moments when his parents would seem to do exactly this. How he often saw them avoiding touching, looking. Oft did he wonder that he was the only reason they stayed together, when there seemed to be such a distance between the two.

 

“Why did you run away with me?” Lucinne asked finally. “You were a Knight Dragoon yes?”

 

“You were with my child...and I could see no way to raise a son in an unending war where I would most likely die.”

 

All the confirmation Aubinaux needed. They were bound by the barest of threads. For years he suspected it. He was just more surprised they managed in those thirteen summers without him there. He quietly stood up, took his bowl of soup, and stepped out into the night again. _Better for them to deal with this themselves,_ he thought.

 

With a warm bowl in his hands, he carefully trotted over to his favorite spot in Limsa Lominsa. Over at the Anchor Yard, looking over the moored ships at the bay. How long had it been since he was a child, curious about the world around him? Hmph. The world didn’t care. Not for boyish dreams of freedom from a home that never felt like one.

 

Just like long ago, he spent time just watching the harbor. So many nights he just slipped out and watched the moon, the waves. Under Llymlaen’s guidance, he prayed that one day, he might journey forth under the seas. Look where she got him though. Though, he supposed it was thanks to her that he somehow managed to find Usynlon and through him, Mariko and U’lakata. There was at least one good thing in his life.

 

...and just like long ago, he heard the sound of footsteps. Father would come to take him home. Aubinaux smiled just a little bit as Nolanel knelt down beside his son. “So how did it go?” Aubinaux asked.

 

“We...had a long discussion,” Nolanel said, keeping his eyes forward to the sea. “When you get to my age, it’s hard to want to change things in life. Then again...” He rubbed his eyes, sighing. “...life doesn’t seem to give a damn anyway.”

 

Aubinaux simply stared ahead into the harbor, keeping his face as neutral as it possible. Nolanel sighed, seeing the unchanging expression on his son’s face. “We’re...going to give it a few days. See how things feel now. And...well, you have an aunt actually, I’m going to write to her.”

 

 _Ha. Shouldn’t have been surprised at another secret,_ Aubinaux glumly thought.

 

“She was my co-conspirator and my friend. Another person who wholeheartedly believed in the saving grace of love. And we both...well...chafed under the society we lived in. I, a first born son of a minor house sent into the military to win honor...”

 

 _Wait wait wait, he was a noble!?_ Aubinaux looked at his father with eyes wide now. Nolanel chuckled at his reaction.

 

“Isaudorel de Voilinaut was my name. And who knows, maybe I’ll have to take it up again. We shall see what my sister decides. Hope the postmen are good at finding people.”

 

Knowing what Aubinaux knew of the Moogles, not likely. “I can ask around and deliver it for you.”

 

Now it was Nolanel’s turn to be surprised. “You would do that?”

 

“Well at the very least, I can ask about the Voilinaunt family.” _Besides which, I need to confirm what you are saying for myself._

 

Nolanel clasped his son’s shoulder and squeezed it tightly. “Thank you. Here.” He handed a small handkerchief with a crest and some sort of small stone within it. Aubinaux uncovered it to find a glimmering blue stone. A job stone. “I was going to give you this anyway. You are free to do with it as you will, though I would advise returning it to whomever is in charge of the Knights Dragoon now if you do not intend on using it yourself.”

 

Aubinaux found himself looking into the stone, appraising it. In the back of his mind he heard a roaring sound. No...the harder he tried to listen, the more it sounded like a song. And a familiar rage, but not of his own. Interesting.

 

The hand left Aubinaux’s shoulder and his father stood up. “Well, I will not take you back home tonight. You are more than old enough to decide where that is for yourself. But please come see your mother more often.” Nolanel smiled and headed off into the fog.

 

Home. It had taken him long enough, but at least he had a bit of a clue where that was. For a few more moments, he gazed out into the port, but just when he felt that his father had taken enough time to head home, he turned away and headed towards the Downing Wrench. He had friends waiting to hear what happened, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I've struggled with this fic for so long you guys. And will likely struggle with the next one in the series. Oh writing characters you are creating up as you go.


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